The History of Svartalfaheim I

Based off the homeworld in Norse Mythology, this is lore for the game I'm helping to make, known as Legends of an Ancient City. All of this will change, especially with help.

The Forgotten Age

The Creation Story

Nobody knows much of the early years, for they were at the beginning of history itself. Odin and his brothers created the magical system of realms known as Yggdrasil so that the gods could travel from one planet to the next, helping them along to become thriving homeworlds. Some things, however, were beyond their control. The brothers created or at least modified nine realms. However, whether it be by an accident or by the urd magic in Ginnungagap, foreign realms, though they were tiny, linked up to the system, branching off the larger realms in different places. These were known as twig realms, and though they were not part of Odin’s plan, they played a massive part in Ragnarok. One of the main nine realms had beings on it already. Dusky elves, a noble but cold race, dwelled in the north of Svartalfaheim. It is assumed that something else, something far fouler than Odin, had a plan as well. Despite the presence of these beings, Odin carved a mysterious fellow, a rough draft if you will, out from the stone in the south. He called him Motsognir, or battle roarer, for he planned that he would lead the way to Ragnarok for his people. He also issued Motsognir to help sculpt him a new race, a race known as man. Motsognir obeyed, and he received three gifts from the three brothers, Odin, Vili, and Ve: a wife (traditionally known as Hilda), the lands in the south of Svartalfaheim, and lastly immortality, which would spread to some of his sons.

The Two Cities

Motsognir and Hilda had several children, and the first four were Dvalin, Durin, Hrothgar, and Hreidmar. Hrothgar was the only immortal one. Durin was angered at his father’s plan to have but one city, so he went on his own, bringing several of his allies. They settled in a land to the East and created a city known as Gustavar, where they became the Hill Dwarves. The three united brothers continued to work in runeforging and swordplay, until one day a star appeared in the sky, shining through the never-ending clouds of Svartalfaheim. The star brought only misery and warfare among the two dwarven cities, for now, the Saurians had come.

The Saurian War

The star deemed by most as “the forgotten star” was guessed to be overlooked earlier. Dvalin, however, had always looked up to the sky at night and he knew it was no natural star. A week after the star arrived, flashes of light lit up the sky, happening several days in a row. The dwarves at Nidavellir, the original hold, had no clue of what was going on. In reality, the star was a planet with a name too long to pronounce, full of terrifying lizardmen. The planet would often shift through realms, and the saurians on the planet would travel to the nearest world via portals. The last planet it had been to was Midgard, where they subdued the majority of the humans. Now the planet had shifted again, and they were descending bit by bit to this dark planet, to seek for sacrifices to Quetzalcoatl, the sun god. They landed in the land of Arvenvargr and sent forth legions to Gustavar. There they laid the town under siege before storming in when the people were weak and slaughtering those who resisted. They rest the enslaved for a short while before they were cut open upon the great altars at their planet. However, hope remained. Those who fled Gustavar before the siege rushed to Nidavellir and beckoned Motsognir to let them in. Motsognir gladly accepted them, but there was no time for celebration. The hill dwarves worked as fast as possible to supply mechanical weapons to be mounted on the ramparts. However, it was not enough to keep back the impending force of sauriankind. Motsognir knew this, along with the fact that his men had never been in an actual war. He then decided to train one hundred men in an elite manner, for hours on end until the Saurians would arrive. Three days passed, and still, nothing came. Motsognir felt he had trained these warriors in the best way he knew, and he felt they were ready. On the fourth day, a swarm of creatures similar to birds flew out from the heavy clouds and swooped up men from the wall, tearing them to pieces. As soon as the artillery was prepared, however, they were gone. From the crest of the horizon approached a line of saurian cavalry and war reptiles. Massive, long-necked creatures stomped down the hillside, bristling with blowgunners and javelin throwers. Monstrous carnivores chomped their maws, slobbering in anticipation. Line after line of lizardmen marched in unison towards the mountain hold of the dwarves. Then the Delving Gates opened, and the one-hundred dwarves marched out upon monstrous boars. The saurians rattled in a hissing sort of laughter. From behind rank upon rank of saurians lay the goal of the dwarves: their leader, Dowran Souldrinker. He was a naga, a serpentine being that is the sort of warrior priest of the Saurians. Dowran was a usurper of the throne, for nagas were not natural leaders. However, this one was the leader of the entire brood, and he had come to Svartalfaheim for his next set of victims. Now he rode upon a war altar driven by a monstrous horned reptile. There his Sarkany guards brought up captives to be eviscerated on the site. Dowran drew from their life force, trapping their souls in the dagger forever. Motsognir strode forth with his trained warriors, bearing a green and blue flag. “We are the Steel Hird! Fight for the flag!” Motsognir roared. The dwarves charged in, screaming “Valhalla!” They broke through the first rank of saurian warriors but by the fifth row, all of them were dismounted. As soon as Motsognir’s boar was slain, he stood up and hacked through several more beasts. His men fought bravely, but it was only a matter of time before the newly made flag was trampled underfoot. It was said by the saurians that a god must have empowered Motsognir, for though all his men were slain or sacrificed, he kept swinging his ax Oatholder until he reached the Sarkanys guarding their leader. He fought the sarkany for several minutes until dismembering the Dragonoid. He supported himself with his ax, covered in cuts and claw marks. Before the two Sarkanys on the side closed in, Motsognir sprung towards the horned reptile that was in front of Dowran’s pyramid-shaped altar. He felled the beast somehow, and scaled the pyramid, hacking Dowran’s coils into three pieces before beheading him. The saurians stood in awe as their leader went into death throes, and his daggers fell onto the bloodied dirt. Those at a distance reported seeing the dwarf glow with light and vaporize all the saurians in a radius, including the seven remaining saurian guards. In a vertical beam of light, Motsognir was gone, and in the sky was a glowing spot, known as the Dwarven Sun. The dwarves within Nidavellir took up arms as most of the once-emotionless saurians fled, and the rest were slaughtered. The dwarves were only fueled by Motsognir’s sacrifice, and from the saurian captives, they knew he was in Valhalla with Odin. Better yet, the star was gone when night came. The dwarves were exuberant, but their excitement was not nearly as much as the shock of the saurians. They had never been in a realm so short as this. They had stayed there for only a couple weeks. It was no feast, however, for Durin had been felled in Gustavar, and their leader was gone.

The War of Kin

Most of the Saurians were hunted and wiped out, but nobody ever returned to Gustavar, especially after three scouting parties were never seen again. The dwarves made Hrothgar king, but Hreidmar, his younger brother, wished to usurp him. He was always a foul person, and only his family would associate with him. Three of his sons, Fafnir, Regin, and Otr, were well versed in runes and had been good at stealing and altogether bad behavior. All three held runes that allowed them to change shapes, Otr could change into an otter, Regin a badger, and Fafnir a lindwyrm. Fafnir never changed, though. He saved his rune for when he would need it. Hreidmar was fond of gold, like all dwarves, but his lust led him to cheat and steal to obtain it. When Hrothgar was coronated, he devised a plan with his sons to kill his brother. While Regin got in a fight with the guards, Otr aimed a crossbow from a separate turret through the window of the keep at Hrothgar. However, a guard caught Otr off guard and brought him to the keep, where Hreidmar ran out and attempted to kill his brother himself. Hrothgar overpowered him and all of the sons were imprisoned while Hreidmar was cast through a portal to Midgard. Dvalin, the magician that cast it, proceeded to cast his sons through as well, but he was choked to death by the brothers. Despite all this, the brothers were in the end cast through the open portal, but Dvalin was dead. Hrothgar was the of the four sons of Motsognir, and he continued to rule as king.

Lord Belzir's Coronation

Far away, in the North, lay the realm of the Myrkalfar, or dusky elves. They were ruled by a noble and just lord known as Alvor. He had a wife known as Creidhe, and four sons and two daughters. Now Creidhe had had two stillborns, and she was pregnant again. She feared to have yet another stillborn, so she left the capital of Salkorvich to consult a seer. Now seers are Myrkalfar that have glanced at the Dark Hunters, a wolfish shadow of a creature that swallows the souls of beings and uses them to their cause. The dusky elves were in a great war with the Dark Hunters, so consulting with Seers was not legal whatsoever. The Queen, however, broke this law and strode to the far north atop her horse, alone in the bleak landscape. In Northerland she found a tent and entered it. She asked the Seer that was inside whether her next child would die as well, and the Seer answered “He will not only live, but he will be a lord. He will align with the crow, the snake, the spider, and the wolf. And he shall make the maggot squirm!” The Queen had no idea what this meant, but she took it as a good sign. Several years later, when the Queen’s son Belzir was a young lad, Lord Alvor and his older sons went hunting for black stags when they were assaulted and torn to pieces by dire wolves. The queen went missing the day the news reached Salkorvich, and all that could be found was a note retelling all that had happened with the Seer. Cadus Ironclaw, the most trusted noble, was appointed regent over the young Belzir. After twenty years of waiting, he was coronated and became king over all the Myrkalfar in place of his father.

The Dreaded Years

The Still Fever

The dwarves hunger for power was still so great that they traveled north of Nidavellir to discover riches. When they reached the Ashensteppes, they came upon a city of Myrkalfar. They traded riches with king Hrothgar’s men, including black diamonds, though neither of them knew the other language. The dwarves continued to hike northwards, but as Hrothgar was sent to the land to speak with the people of the towns, he was stopped in the city square by a seer. “He will make the maggot squirm!” The blind hag screamed, and then she started chanting until the whole town was chanting. Motsognir, unable to understand them, was confused until they started throwing rotten foods at the procession. The dwarves took out weapons and the people shrunk back. No blood was shed that day. Motsognir was sent back to Nidavellir, but he ordered the dwarven explorers to continue to what appeared to be their capital, known as Salkorvich. He wanted to maintain diplomatic relations with the strange folk. However, the saurians haunted them still, and they had spread a disease to the dwarves that while the dwarves were immune to it, the elves were very vulnerable to the disease. In the south, where the dwarves first made contact, the people were getting weaker and weaker, and their skin was growing hard and cold. Soon enough, all of the southern towns were paralyzed. The messengers rode past the dwarves to Salkorvich, and warned Belzir of the plague. Belzir, scared for his people, ordered to release the Wind Riders, an elite skirmish cavalry that could wipe out the dwarves, or at least push them back while the people fled. The people passed around Dokkalwood, the home of the Dark Hunters, to throw the dwarves off. There in Adun, they built up a camp which became a small city, and they created a hospital known as Mar-Adun to try to treat patients. However, the plague continued to spread ever northwards, even when the dwarves were pushed back. Finally, Belzir locked himself in a tall tower to make sure he was not infected. However, a giant crow tapped at the window on the fifth day. Belzir opened the window and the crow introduced himself in a crackling but audible voice as the murderlord of the all giant crows. He stated that he could fetch a cure, with a cost. The dead must remain unburied, so they could feast. Belzir agreed and was given the instructions to making a cure for his people. The crow gave Belzir a white flower, and Belzir brought a captive seer to Mar-Adun. There he sacrificed the seer, and in the black blood, he bruised the white flower. A steam rose up from the gore, a black mist. The fume rose into the sky and slowly formed a smoke cloud. The people that breathed it in were cured. Nearly three centuries passed before there were enough people in Adun (the rest were wiped out) to populate the small city. But Belzir wanted more than to populate. He wanted to bring low the mighty dwarves. He wanted them dead.

Fall of Nidavellir

Belzir made several changes in the next hundred years after his people were recuperated. He made Mar-Adun into a war fort, and the city around it came to be known by the same name. He changed his name to Balcor, the black star. He banished several pacifists from the city, including his regent Cadus. Lastly, he formed an alliance with the Dark Hunters, the sworn enemy of all elvenkind. The Dark Hunters supplied them with dire wolves to ride, and the murderlord gave several of his crows to swoop into battle. After four hundred years of waiting, Balcor made his move. He sent forth a medium-sized force to Nidavellir and realized a great wall lay between Nidavellir and the outside world. This barrier was impossible to breach currently, they needed machines. But they also learned that the banished elves were assisting the dwarves! The Myrkalfar retreated and left back to Mar-Adun, reporting all of this. Balcor was in a rage and ordered the construction of war engines. He proclaimed that they would no longer be dusky elves, but dark elves, for they were for the Dark Hunters. When the machines were complete, a massive force was sent to the barrier once more, and this time they laid siege to it for days on end, battering the wall with projectiles and climbing the sides with siege ladders. At long last, Hrothgar arrived with Cadus at his side. The two faced down the enemy hordes with a large force, but soon enough the Steel Hird had shattered one more, and Hrothgar was killed and beheaded. The dwarves fled at the sight of the massive army pouring through the breached gates. The dark elves looted and razed the countryside until they reached Nidavellir. Those unable to fight, including the Queen Thora and her young son Argen, fled the mountain hold and wandered the land in search of a home. Nidavellir was held in a final siege, the bulwark that had stood against such great battles now was falling into dust. The last stand of Nidavellir was never recorded, despite the dark elves’ tales of the cowardice that the dwarves showed. When the kingdom fell, the dark elves swarmed into it, defiling everything. They burned the great library and chiseled off the head of the great Motsognir’s statue. The head lay at the base of the towering structure and was covered in bloody graffiti. Garexus Staghorn was appointed as leader of Nidavellir, the third capital of the dark elves after Salkorvich was reinhabited.

Author's Note

Most importantly, this is not the end. I will hopefully post more here. Secondly, though this is labeled as teen, I meant it for teen and up. Consider it the basic LOTR reader age. Lastly, I was not sure of several of the labels I put on, since this is a history. I decided to go with fantasy.

Reviews

[Fabian G. Franklin]

Again, very fabulous mythology intertwined in the telling. It holds the interest of the reader and should make for a good video game. I enjoyed the read.